Chalk it Up

Chalk It Up 

Please note this activity is extensive and is designed for September 14th and 16th. There will not be another post on the Kindergarten Team website on Sept. 16th. Please continue to do activities from this lesson on Sept 16th. Please also note the parent homework at the end of this lesson to prepare for the following week.

*Disclaimer: This lesson contains links to YouTube videos. We cannot control advertisements that may appear when these videos are opened. Please be sure to supervise children at all times when viewing YouTube links in case disturbing or inappropriate material unexpectedly appears. 

In this lesson the students will listen to a story book, experiment with mixing cornstarch, water and food colouring to create a chalky compound and have some fun outside. 

Note for Parents: 

This lesson contains a wordless book which means the reader must pay close attention to the pictures and make up the story as they go. After reading the book students will be making chalk paint. You will need cornstarch, water and food colouring. The amount of cornstarch does not matter as long as you use equal parts cornstarch to equal parts water. Please make sure to document all the activities you do and send it to your teacher. 

Reading: 

Read Chalk written by Bill Thomson and narrated by Evvy and Bill Burgess. Discuss with your child what happened in the book. Listen to your child’s ideas and wonder with him/her. Some questions to get you started could be: I wonder where the children were coming from when they came across the bag of chalk. Was the chalk magical or was the dinosaur holding the bag of chalk magical? Were the children merely using their imaginations or was is magic? What would your child draw with a stick of magic chalk and why?  What would happen if his/ her picture came to life? 

Try watching the video again with your volume off. Pause the video at each page and let your student read the pictures to tell his/ her own version of the story. This is a great time to teach your student that there are 3 ways to read a book: read the words, read the pictures and retell the story. It is important to instill confidence in our young learners and let them know everyone is a reader even if they do not know the words. 

Environment and Community Awareness: 

Please note that this paint does not keep and needs used within 1-2 hours of being created. I use 1 tbsp of cornstarch and water per muffin compartment. 

Materials: muffin tin, small childrens paint brush, water, food colouring, cornstarch. 

Watch The Scientific Method video by Jack Hartmann. Tell your student that today they will be experimenting what happens when you mix cornstarch, water and food colouring. Use the following simplified scientific method steps to guild your discussions:  

1. Ask a Question- What could happen if we mixed cornstarch, water and food colouring? 
2. Make a prediction. Take a guess! 
3. Identify the variables- the amount of cornstarch, amount of water, different colours of food colouring. 
4. Conduct the experiment -parents, please view the following Chalk Paint video for instructions 
5. Draw a conclusion, what was the end result? Was your prediction right?  
6. Use your chalk paint for any of the activities listed below. Be sure to share with your teacher pictures or videos of the activities you choose with your child. 

Numeracy: 

1. Draw a large circle or bubble using each of the colours you created. Find objects that are the same colour as your chalk circle to place inside the circle. Try to sort at least 3 items into each coloured circle. Hint: use small items from inside your house too.  
2. Draw five large squares and write a number from 1-5 in each square. Can you find the same number of objects to put in each square? For example, one rock in the #1 square or two sticks in the #2 square. 
3. Play hopscotch. Let’s work on some gross motor and paint out hopscotch. Use a die to see how many hops you can go. Note: many students will need to count the dots on the die, overtime students will develop the ability to know the number based on the arrangement of dots without counting. 
4. Shape Hop (similar to hopscotch and also works on gross motor development): draw 3 rows of shapes (circle, square, triangle, rectangle, oval) and have your student choose a shape. See if he/ she can get from the start to the end by only hopping on the shape they choose. 

Writing: 

1. Use your chalk paint to print your name outside (or in your bathtub but be sure to test a small piece on your bathtub first to make sure all the colour washes off). 

• Let’s work on some extra fine motor skills by using tweezers, a clothes peg or tongs to line your name with pebbles. The pebbles go right overtop of your chalk letters. 
• Have an adult help say all the letter sounds in your name?
• Can you find an object that starts with the same sound as your first letter (for example, a pinecone for Penelope or leaf for Levon)? How about the rest of the letters in your name? 

      2. Use rocks to spell out your name. If you have 5 letters in your name then you will need 5 rocks to paint on. 

     3. After reading the story Chalk, use a blank sheet of paper and make a picture of what you would draw with a piece of magic chalk.

     4. Play Tic Tac Toe. The straight and diagonal lines are great pre-printing practice!  

Homework/ prep for Wednesday: On Wednesday you will need 26 rocks with a letter of the alphabet (A-Z) written on each one. You could also use seashells, alphabet magnets, foam letters or any sturdy material from your home. Use a permanent marker to print the uppercase letter on one side and lowercase letter on the other side. You will also need 10 rocks. On 5 rocks print the numbers 1-5 and on the other 5 rocks draw the corresponding number of dots for 1-5. Please keep these in a Ziploc bag for future use throughout the year.